Don’t Let the Winning Get to Your Head, Cole Hamels

I’ll be the first one to give Cole Hamels some props for pitching lights out in the playoffs. The guy nutted up and was probably the biggest reason the Phillies won the World Series. Still though, I’m not sure that dominance should give you the right to crap on the Mets (unless your name is Jimmy Rollins). Hamels was on WFAN and was egged on by their hosts from the sounds of things. I urge you to listen to get a flavor for the interview because what players say on the radio gets blown out of proportion by people such as myself. Still, here are how the inflammatory comments read in print:

“Last year and this year I think we did believe that [they were choke artists]. Three years ago we didn’t because they smoked everybody, and I think we all thought they were going to win it all. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. But, yeah, that’s kind of what we believed and I think we’re always going to believe that until they prove us wrong,” Hamels said. “For the past two years they’ve been choke artists.”

It still reads a lot worse than it sounded, but Hamels had several chances to go easy on the Mets and even back off of agreeing with the hosts yet he stood firm. I guess he’s the one with the ring and has the right to say that, but the Mets also have the ability to make him eat his words this year. They’ve signed K-Rod and added J.J. Putz to their bullpen, so they’ve addressed many of their problems. Those moves don’t make them winners, but they do make them better. Here’s to a splendid ’09 baseball season in the NL East!